Education has always been everchanging but I'm not sure if where it's going is a good thing or if we have ever really moved. Ideas on how to teach your students more efficiently come at you constantly, the newest and greatest way to teach reading, and so on, but I don't know if it's really better or just a fad everyone hops on like a fashion trend. Often times I find us going back to what we did years ago but we call it something different. When I discuss this with teachers who have been teaching for years longer than me, they have seen things come and go so often that they don't want to change because they know it will come back again.
I think a lot of people now that we have moved away from those "simple, if monotonous" drills are wishing they would come back somewhat. We are now so focused on not having students feel anxious that we will soon have students drawing tables on paper to do simple math at the grocery store. When it comes to certain things, I do think that there are some we just have to memorize, however, there are now a variety of more engaging ways to do it. Using technology in the classroom is a great way to change the drills and memorization into something that is more engaging and memorable for the student.
However, I do agree that having a practical and real-world way of using those things is essential to showing a student how important it is to learn and grow with the world around us. Our school participates in Project Based Learning where students are able to take a real-world problem and work through it with their peers to find a solution to it. Last year, our students asked how they could be more inclusive to their peers and learn about their cultures and celebrations. Each student made a group and chose a holiday or celebration to study and research. They were able to pick a way to present and then a student asked if we could share what we learned with the school during our Holiday Sing-a-long. We sing songs about Kwanzaa and Hannukah, as well as others. It was a great way for them to share their learning and spread awareness and understanding to the parents, staff, and students at our school. This practice of learning, where students are not only meeting the TEKS, but becoming better well-rounded humans, I think is the most beneficial for them and for the future of our world.
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